Beyond Utopia: Japanese Metabolism Architecture and the Birth of Mythopia

Megastructure proposals by the Japanese Metabolism group are commonly identified with utopian concepts. Beyond Utopia argues that Metabolism Megastructures represent an amalgam genre: myth camouflaged as utopia. After exploring the growing demand for a new myth in architecture (the origin of myth), Part One examines the formal characteristics of the Megastructures to reveal underlying intent. Part Two looks at design methods, clarifying the function of myth. Part Three deals with the subject of myth and suggests a new reading of Metabolism urban theory: as an attempt to reconsider the traditional Japanese space concept through cultural images rooted in the collective (un)conscious of Japan.